The Pot TV News for September 27, 2002

Thursday, September 26, 2002

"Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." –H.L. Mencken

MARIJUANA PARTY LEADER GETS 6 YEARSAfter spending millions on a marijuana investigation that involved phone wiretaps, bugs in his home, and a GPS tracker in his car, RCMP found no marijuana in his home, no marijuana in his car and no marijuana on his person. Regardless, in 2000, Nova Scotia resident Mike Patriquen, holder of a medical marijuana exemption, was bullied into pleading guilty to conspiracy to traffic in marijuana and convicted.

GENESIS RAID EXPOSED BY LA TIMESSchmidt’s neighbors remain troubled that Schmidt, 52, could face a long prison sentence—10 years to life—for what they consider a desire to help the sick. The punishment, they say, doesn’t fit what should have been simply a residential zoning violation.

SAN DIEGO’S STEVE MCWILLIAMS RAIDED BY DEAOne week after Steve McWilliams handed out medical marijuana outside San Diego City Hall, drug enforcement agents uprooted his Normal Heights pot garden and said he may face cultivation charges in federal court.

POT GOT YOU CONFUSED? YOU MUST BE THE DEAThe leaders of the federal war on drugs are upset. At the very moment they were launching a multimillion-dollar media campaign to educate parents and kids about the risks of marijuana, the city fathers of Santa Cruz gathered on the steps of City Hall to witness the distribution of marijuana to the patients of a medical marijuana collective.